Tim Beck is confident in his quarterback options

When NC State fifth-year redshirt junior quarterback Devin Leary lay injured on the turf at Carter-Finley Stadium during the second half of the win over Florida State, Wolfpack offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Tim Beck had no time to reflect on what was happening. Instead, Beck had to get his backup signal-callers prepared.

“Your team is counting on you, and you got to move on,” Beck noted. “You got to get the next guy ready.”

So the time to reflect on what happened to Leary came later that night after the game, when Beck chatted with his wife. As Beck noted, his overarching thoughts for his star QB and the injury were, “It sucked.”

However, Beck was proud of the way former Charleston Southern all-conference quarterback and NC State walk-on Jack Chambers led the offense after he entered the game. Beck remembered being initially impressed by Chambers’ poise during the first meeting in the offseason when Chambers was exploring potential transfer opportunities.

Moreover, Beck has always placed an emphasis on having all his quarterbacks ready.

“It’s been one of my things that I’ve done for years and years and years,” Beck noted. “To make sure that guy practices all the time, like even if they are not going, they’re back there. They got to tell me the play. They got to run through it. I grade them on film, watching where they throw the ball, all that, even if they are not going.

“They all do it. They all get reps because the worst thing you can do for the football team, the community, the fanbase, the university, is to put in a guy who says, ‘Well I didn’t run that play.’ That’s on him. We’re running those plays every day. You need to be dialed in.”

There were not a lot of passing attempts for Chambers on Saturday. Just one officially, although Beck acknowledged there were some pass plays called that Chambers turned into runs.

However, the disproportionate balance between rush and pass against the Seminoles in the second half when Chambers came into the game was intentional based on how the game was unfolding.

“I felt like we were having an opportunity to control the line of scrimmage a little bit,” Beck noted. “I felt momentum swinging things when some of that was happening. We were putting ourselves in position to score, and so the last thing you wanted to do was to try to risk anything.

“Again, I hold those guys accountable. They take every rep, but they are physically not throwing it and physically not always seeing the coverage. Sometimes you feel a little, ‘Do you feel good about this play?’”

If Chambers has to go again Saturday, he will have to quickly learn a complex defense, Beck noted. Syracuse is No. 10 nationally and top in the ACC in total yards allowed.

Like NC State, Syracuse uses a 3-3-5 defense, but the Orange’s version functions differently.

“They do a lot of different coverage variations than our guys and different pressures,” Beck noted. “They’re a fast, quick team. They do a lot in the back end to disguise you. That’s one of those things you have to spend a lot of time watching film to try to figure out coverage and the things they are trying to do.

“They are doing a good job. They are playing with a lot of confidence. It’s a good defensive football team.”

However, whoever is at quarterback has Tim Beck’s full confidence to run the offense.

“I think all the quarterbacks, all of them, can do what we do,” Beck said. “That’s why they are here. That’s why we recruited them. That’s where the guys are at where they are at, even in the depth chart, positionally. If they couldn’t do those things, then they wouldn’t be where they are at.

“Certain guys do things better than others. That’s every position. It’s offensive line, it’s wide receivers, it’s running backs, but you trust them to go in there and run the offense and execute. That’s always the expectation. I’m very, very hard on the quarterbacks about that because they are always one play away from playing.”